F-16 Smart Display – Keeping the Viper Relevant Through 2025
It has often been a safe assumption that
an original equipment manufacturer will
provide long-term support for that equipment
— but now the game is changing.
One example of this change is Raytheon's
addition of new avionics to existing older
aircraft, adopting a form-fit replacement
methodology on platforms not originally
built by Raytheon. The art of this technique
is to integrate advanced capabilities without
changing platform mechanical or software
interfaces, which gives Raytheon the competitive
edge by eliminating the need for,
and the cost of, extensive operational testing
and flight recertification. One real-world
example of this practice is Raytheon's Smart
Display product line adapted to the F-16
Viper aircraft.
The F-16 Smart Display is a form/fit/function
replacement for analog flight instruments
through a new color LCD. It adds embedded
net-centric processing nodes that provide the pilot with new capabilities such
as digital moving map, tactical situational
awareness display, data link processing,
Web services and machine-to-machine messaging
using XML. It can easily add new
capabilities such as the Raytheon Advanced
Combat Radar (RACR) (Figure 1). The Smart
Display includes more processing throughput
and digital data storage than many
mission computers because of recent
advancements in commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) processors used inside mobile
computing platforms.
Operating Mission Support and Primary Flight Reference Software
F-16 Smart Display architecture is based on
dual processors to operate the Mission
Support software and the primary flight
reference software. The Mission Support
software contains many common reusable
software components, allowing for quicker and more cost-effective development. This
software architecture also permits COTS
processor upgrading without affecting the
Mission Support software.
The F-16 Smart Display uses Raytheon's
Information Layer architecture to layer
asynchronous net-centric battlefield data
processing on top of the deterministic command-response processing found in the
existing modular mission computer (MMC).
Net-centric operations are asynchronous in
nature and involve helping the pilot visualize
the battlefield and provide data exchange
with other battlefield elements.
The F-16 Smart Display provides the pilot
with the following capabilities:
Digital primary flight reference display
FalconView™ digital moving map
Tactical situational awareness using data
link overlays
Data link processing
Sensor control and sensor points-ofinterest
data sharing
Digital image capture and XML image
transfer to other systems using cursor on
target messaging
Embedded processing for growth features
(Tactical geo-registration, AT3 processing,
Web services)
Two constraints drove the physical packaging
solution. First, an affordable, upgradable
solution was required. A COTS solution for
the processors, 3-D graphics engines,
Ethernet LAN components and 1553 data
bus interface cards was chosen. The second
constraint was to avoid cutting the aircraft,
which would require flight recertification.
Consequently, the solution was designed
from the front, fitting into the space of a
3-inch analog flight instrument, while still
providing the requisite capabilities and processing
(Figure 2). These limitations required
multiple small physical enclosures to exchange
data to provide video to the LCD
glass panel. Components were installed into
the existing opening of the instrument
panel and then properly aligned using highdensity
electrical connectors. Cable harnesses
were eliminated by stacking custom
circuit card assemblies and building a new
interface card.
Integrating New Capabilities
Smart Display supports advanced sensor
and net-centric radio integration into the
F-16. By leveraging the embedded
net-centric processing nodes contained
within the Smart Display, new capabilities
are integrated without changing the
operational flight program (OFP) software
in the current MMC. These capabilities
can be Raytheon- or externally-developed
capabilities.
Two examples are the Raytheon Active
Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar
and the airborne mobile ad-hoc network
(MANET). The MMC would continue to receive
the existing sensor and radio data and
would be the control point for the AESA
radar and the airborne MANET radio. The
Smart Display sits on the avionics data buses
within the F-16 mission system and can extract
key avionics data without affecting the
platform software. New features can now
be integrated directly into the Smart Display
by developing dedicated links between the display, the AESA radar and the airborne
MANET radio for data exchange (Figure 3).
Using the Smart Display as the point of
advanced sensor and net-centric radio
integration allows Raytheon to upgrade
the F-16 as a low-cost field modification.
